Saturday we checked out Taronga Zoo which meant catching another ferry and admiring the views again. This time we actually passed under the harbour bridge. The zoo is on the other side of the harbour so you get good views of the city when looking at some of the animals (e.g. the giraffe’s had a good view!). I think I enjoyed watching the gorilla’s the most as I’ve never seen any before and the youngsters were having a good scrap when we turned up!

In the evening we met up with one of Lenny’s friends who’s moved out here and I had Kangaroo steak. It was quite tasty but tough. I don’t know if it is normally tough or whether it was just a poor cut of meat. I’ll have to try some more some time to find out. It was expensive though, AU$27 which works out at 12-13 GBP. I am generally finding food and drink to be quite expensive in Sydney, maybe on a par with London. Property prices are also pretty high with 1 and 2 bed apartments going for AU$400,000 and above (millions if there’s a view of the river or harbour).

Yesterday (Sunday) we just hung out on Bondi Beach. We stopped off in a cafe for a snack but it took them an hour just to serve up a ham and cheese croissant (with no cheese – they’d ran out). Another Ozzie got so pissed off he started a slanging match with the owner and we were nearly caught in a full-on brawl! When we tried to get a drink later on we struggled a bit as most of the restaurants and bars were gearing up for the evening trade and only wanted to give us a table if we ate. One waiter was very brusque so we just left.

Bondi Beach itself it okay but it got pretty busy – I’d hate to think how busy it’d get in the peak of summer. Personally I feel it’s a bit overrated – not only was the beach busy but there were cars everywhere and it’s all a bit grotty. This photo was taken later on in the evening when most of the people had already left (you can tell it’s late from the length of the shadows)…

One thing that was nice though was the bevvy of topless beauties sprawled all over the beach. I didn’t know where to look!

Today we were originally going to go to the Hunter Valley and do some wine tasting, but the tour we wanted to book didn’t run on a Monday so we went to Manly beach instead. I reckon Manly is a much more pleasant place than Bondi. It was nowhere near as busy, but then today (Monday) was a working day.

I checked into a surf school and had my first ever go at surfing. I was useless! It’s really difficult! I did manage to catch a few waves but I couldn’t quite stand up on the board so just knelt on it as each wave brought me in. Of course more often than not I fell off and ended up with half the ocean going up my nose. I’m sure with a bit more practice I could eventually stand up, but it’s hard work and after a couple of hours I was completely exhausted.

Tomorrow we’re going to do a bit of shopping for souvenirs and I’m going to meet up with a guy I know who works for an Ozzie hardware/software reseller out here. Tomorrow is our last full day in Oz so it will be quite sad as we leave for New Zealand on Wednesday morning.